Winners 2017

Winners Area

Lifetime Achievement Award 2017

And the winner is...

Mr. John Jefferis, Owner, Coco Reef Resorts

Winner Profile | johnjefferis.blogspot.co.uk

Meet the Winner

Bermudian hotelier and developer, John Jefferis, has been recognised with a ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ by the World Travel Awards Academy, for his exceptional contribution to the travel and tourism industry.

Jefferis – who owns Coco Reef Bermuda and Coco Reef Tobago, together with a number of other businesses in the Caribbean – studied at Birmingham University where he was awarded the Hotel and Catering Institute's National Award, for the top final year management student.

Subsequently Jefferis secured an internship at London's Savoy Hotel, before moving to Bermuda where he went on to become General Manager at the Belmont Hotel.

Jefferis followed this up by becoming Managing Director of the Elbow Beach Hotel and Development Company and a member of the Board of Directors.

In 1992, Jefferis commenced the construction of the US$82 million Coco Reef Tobago – which became one of the Caribbean's most successful properties and resulted in British Airways commencing direct flights to Tobago.

Next up, Jefferis acquired the lease for Stonington Beach Hotel in Paget which reopened, following a US$14.3 million renovation, as Coco Reef Bermuda in 2004.

Jefferis has also owned Edgehill Manor, Roxy's Night Club and the Palm Reef Hotel, in addition to serving as the major shareholder in the Haley Corporation which was, for many years, Bermuda's largest tour operator.

World Travel Awards' ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ is just the latest in a long line of accolades for Jefferis who won Bermuda Hotel Association’s first ‘Bermuda Hotelier of the Year’ in 1989, The Caribbean Hotel Association's ‘Caribbean Hotelier of the Year’ in 1991, Caribbean World's ‘Lifetime Achievement Award in Tourism and Travel’ in 2008, Ernst and Young's ‘Caribbean Entrepreneur of the Year Award’ in 2000 and International Caribbean Life's ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ in 2014.

And he shows no signs of slowing down… Currently, Jefferis is working on a number of projects including the construction of a Caribbean Fine Art Gallery and the acquisition of another hotel in the Caribbean.

There are ambitious people. Then there are very ambitious people. And then there's John Jefferis.